//------------------------------//
// Echoes of the Past 
// Story: Lost Kindness 
// by xXSilverLiningXx 
//------------------------------//

	“Eventually she got worse.  She had night terrors, and I had to wake her up almost every night.”
“What were they of?” inquired Rarity.
“Memories: some of her earliest ones.”





8 days earlier...

The policepony stood in the doorway, blue uniform hiding his features from the neck down.  He towered above the tired filly like Celestia herself.  Not knowing what else to do, Fluttershy said, “Hiya!  Can I help you?”
No!  Not this again!  But struggle as she might, Fluttershy could do naught but play the scene.
“Is your mother home?” asked the somber stallion in his gravelly voice.
“Sure!  I’ll go get her,” she said.  Fluttershy ran into the living room, calling, “Mom!  Tracey!  Somepony’s here to see you.”
“Be right there,” her mother said, putting out a cigarette.
The two mares rose from their seats.  On the left, her mother’s black hair shimmered in the light, accenting her hoof-and-ear cutie mark perfectly.  The earth pony trotted at an elegant pace.  On the right was a unicorn.  A scroll levitated nearby, getting tangled in her red mane.  Silver calligraphy lined her white flank, proclaiming her literary love to the world.
Both of them froze when they saw the stallion in the door.  In retrospect, her mother looked nervous.
Asking in her rich, heartwarming voice, her mother said, “Is there anything I can help you with, officer?”
“I think there is.  Can you come with me?”
“Of course.  Trace, would you mind staying here?”
“Not at all,” assured her friend.
As her mother walked out the door Fluttershy asked, “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s fine.  Here, do you want to see my newest work?  I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.”
In her distraction, Trace never noticed Fluttershy run to the window.  Trace didn’t realize what Fluttershy had seen.  The police cart drove away, a hoof and ear showing through the window.

Fluttershy bolted awake, cold sweat dripping off her nose.  “No!” she screamed, as the unwanted memories continued to rattle around her head.  The pain, the abandonment, the cold, all came back in one surge.
Suddenly a paw lightly touched her mouth.  Fluttershy looked deeply into Angel’s eyes.  The normally stern dots had gone soft, pleading, concerned.  They said in a gentle whisper, I’m here.  She felt his paws wrap around her in as tight a hug as he could manage, and somehow she felt safer.  Her entire world had shrunken down to one room and the only ones in it were her and Angel.
She hugged him back, streaking tears through their fur.



“So what should we do?” inquired Pinkie.
“What do you think?  It’s not like there’s any real decision here.”
“But how do we find ‘er?” questioned Applejack.
“I believe I can take care of that problem, with your permission, Celestia,” stated Twilight.
Celestia sighed.  “You know not what you risk, but if you can find a way to divide the effects in a safe way then I will allow you.”
“Good!  Then we can begin immediately.”






7 days earlier...

When Fluttershy awoke she did a double take.  Her head was buried in soft, white fur.  She slowly lifted her head off of Angel, careful not to rouse him.  Quickly, she ran her hooves through her hair before looking around the room.
The soft pallet that she had slept in was in the far corner.  A dresser was on the opposite of the room from it, her saddlebags leaning on its side.  The floor was raised on some sort of riser that started just after the doorway, elevating the room about a foot in the air.  They gave a light spring to her step as she walked towards the door.
When she opened the door, she was quite surprised to see the gryphon-monk, talons raised to knock on her door.  “Hi Cleon.  How are you?”
“My apologies,” he said, his voice sounding strangely high, “but I am Brother Cyprus.  Brother Cleon sent me to check on you.  We heard you scream last night.  Are you feeling well?”
“Oh my...” she murmured.  “I’m perfectly fine, bu—”
“Please, do not taint these halls with lies, even if they are meant well.  Either answer honestly or reject the question.”
Fluttershy was shocked.  On the one hoof she had been lying, but on the other she didn’t want to tell the whole truth.  All it would do is worry him, and hurt her.  “No.  I’m not fine.  I mistook you for somepony I should have recognized easily, and I had a terrible nightmare last night.  I don’t even know where I am, and on top of all that, I’m hungry.”
“Well,” chuckled Brother Cyprus, “I’m certain we can help you with at least three of those, although we don’t have a cure for nightmares.  Come with me and we can get some food.”



	

Fluttershy’s eyes snapped open as quickly as they had the past two days.  The nightmares were back and although she was remembering how to ignore them, they continued to tear at her soul.  How did I do this before?
She struggled to remember.  The nightmares had started in Flight School, just after the news had been given to her.  She sifted through her memories.  Painful as they were, she needed to know.  She saw her father and her new “mother”.  They looked at her, concern written on their faces.  Tears lined her father’s eyes for the first time since she had been born, as he said—
NO!  she thought, shoving the memory away like a wet towel.  If there is any day I will not relive, it’s that!  I can’t take that pain—not again.
Quickly seeking a distraction, she followed her routine.  She rose, fixed her hair, and woke Angel.  She preened her ragged feathers and walked through the door.
Wait.
Fluttershy paused, looking at the top of the doorframe.  Set into it was a green gem that she hadn’t noticed before.  It seemed to be gently sparkling.  What could that be for?  Fluttershy resolved to ask Cleon at breakfast and walked away.



	

“Wait!  What about my letter?” yelled Pinkie.
“Well, I suppose it could help,” sighed Rarity.
Caught in a purple aura, the folded piece of paper floated through the air.  Twilight began to read, “Pinkie, I’m so sorry.  I know that this will hurt you the most, but I had to do this.  If you want to know why, tell Rainbow, ‘The Beast is out’.  What could that mean?”
Everypony looked at Rainbow Dash, who burst into tears.  “What?” she cried.  “I thought you said that was impossible!”  She looked out the window and tried to imagine.  How did that monster get out?





Fluttershy sat at the small wooden table, carefully setting her plate down.  The large room contained many such bustling tables, each with their share of gryphon-monks.  This table, however, was empty save for Cleon.
“Good morning,” he said.  “Did you sleep well?”
“No,” she replied flatly.  “The nightmares are still there.”
Cleon sighed.  He had seen this so often before.  It was classic denial, but the question was, of what?  “You know, you could always just talk about it.  Might help.”
“Oh, no.  You opened your home to me.  I would hate to be any trouble.  More than I already am, that is.”
“I see.”
“I was wondering, though: what are those gems in the door?  I never noticed them before.”
“Ah!  That’s a good question.  They go back to when our order was first founded.
“You see, our founder was a rather simple gryphon, at first.  He brewed cider and sold it to a bar—nothing special.  One day, about two years before Luna’s descent, he tried to sell some directly to the Royal court.  He was unfortunate, however, because he happened upon Luna’s shift in court—they didn’t divide the duties so rigidly then.  To say the least, she treated him maliciously and he remembered that.
“Over the next two years, he told of his experience to all around him.  He told how no goddess would treat her subject in such a way.  He told that they must have found immortality, rather than been born with it.  Then The Descent came along and he shamelessly used it as proof for his theory.  He quickly discovered two things, however.  First, his followers tended to be strangely minded in those days, and second, there is no wrath like an alicorn scorned.
“He knew that Celestia would attempt to do away with him, but he also knew the solution.  He preached it to those around him, for he needed help to complete his task.  He gathered a group of magicians, but it was not limited to unicorns.  No, he brought in unicorns, gryphons, and earth ponies.  The unicorns laid down the foundations of the spell.  The gryphons supplied the element of change, in this case from sky to ground.  The earth ponies used their connection to the ground to embed the spell into the gems you see today.  The end result was a complicated network of gems that take outside magic and convert it into light.
“Soon afterwards Celestia attempted to strike us down, but it was then we discovered a strange property of this new magic: its excess energy forms new spells, based on the strongest willpower near it.  That very night Celestia had a vision of our founder.  He explained to her the error of her ways and why she should not smite our order.  Needless to say, his image succeeded.”





“Rainbow!  What does it mean?” asked Pinkie.
“It means...  It means I can tell you,” Twilight sighed.  “I’m released from my promise.”
“But didn’t ya already break it?”
“Not anymore,” she replied.  “But that isn’t our real problem now.  We have to find Flutters, because she is out.”